At Walt Whitman HS, 67% of students are white. It’s nearly the opposite at Montgomery Blair HS, where less than 23% of students are white. Many parents and students in Montgomery County feel these demographic differences aren’t fair and want a solution to de facto segregation in public schools.

This issue played out when parents and students on both sides discussed their concerns at a public forum hosted by WJ on April 23. For the first time in 20 years, the Board of Education is looking into how school boundaries contribute to segregation by race and wealth. This decision has generated heated debate over what the county should do.

Several parents at the WJ meeting said they supported the effort.

“My kids had the benefit of going to a school with lots of diversity and got a better education because of it,” one parent said.

Some parents and students say that Montgomery County doesn’t provide equal opportunity to all students because schools in wealthier neighborhoods get more resources, and these schools tend to have majority-white students. Parents who oppose redistricting are worried about their kids being sent to a lower performing school.

Another public forum for this issue was held recently at Quince Orchard HS. According to the Bethesda Beat, one parent said that redrawing school boundaries would punish white families for “working hard and doing well and choosing to live in a certain community.”

The Board of Education announced in January that it would hire a consultant in May to conduct a boundary study, researching the way demographics and segregation affects students. The current Student Member of the Board, Ananya Tadikonda, proposed that the BOE hire a consultant. By spring 2020, the report will be complete, but the BOE isn’t required to take any action. For this reason, many parents said they were skeptical the initiative would bring about any change.

While many parents oppose the idea of new borders, those who attended the WJ meeting were vocal about their desire for more diversity in schools.

“Blair matches the demographics of the county pretty well, and white students at Blair aren’t worse off for that reason,” another parent said at the WJ meeting.

WJ senior Drew Skilton said MCPS shouldn’t have waited this long to reconsider school boundaries.

“Our demographics change every year. The 80’s was the last time we looked at the lines that make up our schools,” Skilton said.

Junior Izzy Carlisle supports the idea of redistricting.

“Redrawing the boundary lines may help to ease the disparities in resources seen throughout Montgomery County schools,” Carlisle said. “As the county diversifies, the allocation of resources will hopefully become more even so that there will be less of a disparity between schools in the county.”

Venezuela has been in a downward economic spiral for years. Political discontent in the South American country has been fueled by shortages in food and medicine, electricity cuts and extreme hyperinflation. President Nicolas Maduro took over power in Venezuela after widely approved President Hugo Chavez’s death in 2013. Maduro tightened his grip on power in the country, and by the 2018 elections the opposition had enough. Stemming from very lower voter turnout as a result of opposition candidates fleeing or being barred from running, the spring 2018 election was considered illegitimate by many. On January 23, Juan Guaido invoked the constitution to declare himself interim president, a move that would heighten tensions in the country to their fullest. In addition, Guaido became the president of the National Assembly, a legislative body that was largely made irrelevant and powerless by Maduro. Maduro created the National Constituent Assembly, which is made up of exclusively Maduro loyalists, to become the main legislative body.

Since January 23, tensions have only increased within Venezuelan society. Guaido claims legitimacy based on Venezuela’s constitution and the fact that over 50 countries including the US have recognized him as the president. In reality, Guaido holds little practical power, limiting the options his side has to oust Maduro. Guaido has made efforts to garner support from the state military, but it’s been to no avail. He has been seeking assistance from the US military to help forcefully oust Maduro, to officially establish himself as the president. The Trump Administration has favored isolationism, and President Trump holds steadfast on his campaign promise to remove and keep America out of foreign entanglements, though he claims a military option isn’t off the table. Many worry that hawks such as National Security Advisor John Bolton as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo might push Trump to a military intervention in Venezuela, which many have likened to the 2003 Iraq invasion.

Though the tough military talk from both sides, representatives from Guaido and Maduro have had meetings mediated by Norway’s foreign ministry, the first true step towards any remote sense of stability or progress. Both sides have claimed they plan to use the dialogue to “build a peaceful agenda”. Though still in progress, it doesn’t seem the talks have resulted in anything material yet. Guaido officials have discussed forming a joint administration, which may be the only way to end this conflict in a non-violent manner.

In a packed 2020 Democratic field, a young Midwesterner has grabbed the spotlight, seemingly coming out of nowhere. With the race heating up, newcomer Pete Buttigieg recently announced his official 2020 Presidential bid. The 37 year old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is a unique candidate in many ways: he would be the first openly gay and the youngest ever president. Buttigieg is currently serving his second mayoral term, was a member of the US Navy for 8 years and had a 7-month deployment to Afghanistan while in office, is a Rhodes scholar and speaks 8 languages. Although some see Buttigieg as inexperienced, these accomplishments alone already surpass our current president’s political and military experience.

Junior Jacob Coffey has mixed feelings about Buttigieg’s ideas but respects what he has been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time.

“While I don’t completely agree with Buttigieg’s policies, I am all for what he stands for. He currently isn’t ahead in the polls but he’s doing far better than anyone thought a 37 year old mayor from South Bend could do. Anything can happen,” Coffey said.

Buttigieg has an interesting edge over the other candidates, in that before his rapid rise in recent weeks, he was widely unknown. Most candidates have had their teams do research for years to uncover dirt on each other and are already widely known in the political landscape, and as of now there seems to only be one major story being used against him. Mainstream news outlets have covered the story of how Buttigieg fired South Bend’s widely respected first black police chief, Darryl Boykins, in 2012. The decision came after Boykins was under fire for improperly taping phone conversations of two senior white police officers who he claimed had used racist language, including towards him. It’s the first legitimate roadblock for Buttigieg but could end up being a good test of how he handles criticism.

Buttigieg’s ability to lead the country at such a young age has been scrutinized by some, but he tends to nonchalantly assert that this will only help him solve the problems that millennials and Gen Z-ers face as he is able to see things from their perspective.

“He is an exceptional candidate and I would love for him to win. However, it might be difficult to win certain people over due to his age and him being relatively inexperienced,” junior Tom Kesey said.

Having already been featured on the Ellen Show, the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Buttigieg has been able to get his message out to millions, a move that has seen his following grow rapidly. His calming demeanor and generosity towards others have made him stand out in a pack of top Democrats, including Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Some of his priorities lie in finding solutions to climate change, which he believes is a national security threat, implementing universal background checks on gun owners and creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, although he hasn’t been as vocal as other candidates when it comes to identifying his plans of action.

The question now lies in whether Buttigieg can handle the brutality of an entire presidential campaign. To survive a presidential primary, you have to be able to take a punch and give a punch. It might be too early now to tell if Buttigieg will make it through the full stretch. But whether that happens or not, it still seems like he has a bright future in the Democratic Party.

The 2019 MLB season is already well underway. To true baseball fans like myself, the game provides plenty of excitement. However, lots of fans contend that baseball is more boring than ever. And they’re probably not wrong.

According to boston.com, batters are on pace to strike out over 43,000 times this year. In 2005, batters only struck out 30,000 times. Is this trend ruining the game?

Ruining might be a strong accusation, but baseball certainly is losing some of its beauty. Now, it should be noted that it’s harder than ever to be a hitter. Pitchers throw faster than ever. There’s also more specialization among pitchers. Managers often use pitchers for just one or two batters, and then switch to a different pitcher. It’s very hard for hitters to compete with these fresh arms out of the bullpen throwing in the upper 90s without having to worry about getting tired.

Defenses also shift around to adjust to the batter at the plate. For example, many teams will put three infielders on the left side of the infield, instead of the usual two, when a lefty is up. This makes it harder to find the gaps in the field and get hits.

All this has led to most batters adopting an all-or-nothing approach. There’s a huge emphasis on hitting the ball in the air, and hitting it out of the park. This leaves little room for error and has led to a big increase in strikeouts. Look, striking out happens to every baseball player. But this much? Many of these players are too talented to be striking out as much as they do.

There are rule changes the MLB can make to limit strikeouts: They could implement a rule that all pitchers must face at least three batters to reduce specialization. They could restrict the types of shifts teams can do. Both of these changes would help bring back some excitement to the game.

Ultimately though, a lot of baseball’s allure lies in the hands of the hitters. Too many times when a batter has two strikes — a situation when, historically, hitters have been told to just do anything they can to make contact with the ball — they’re still swinging for the fences. Most hitters have adopted the approach that in order to beat the shift, they must hit it over everyone’s heads. This is what has led to more home runs, and unfortunately more strikeouts as well. One could argue that this strategy, though it may work for some, is a bit misguided. The weakness of the shift is that although there may be three infielders on one side, there’s only one infielder on the other side. Why not just try to poke it there? That’s almost a guaranteed base hit.

Again, there are certainly things the MLB can, and probably should, do in order to limit strikeouts and bring back some of the beauty to the game. On the flip side, can you really blame pitchers and defenses for evolving? Fielders have adjusted to the batter. Maybe it’s time the batter adjusts to the fielder.

0

0

]]>https://www.wjpitch.com/opinion/2019/05/21/mlb-hitters-must-find-ways-to-evolve/feed/0WJ baseball season comes to a closehttps://www.wjpitch.com/sports/sports-news/baseball/2019/05/21/wj-baseball-season-comes-to-a-close/
https://www.wjpitch.com/sports/sports-news/baseball/2019/05/21/wj-baseball-season-comes-to-a-close/#respondTue, 21 May 2019 17:14:15 +0000https://www.wjpitch.com/?p=44146

The WJ baseball team came into this season with high hopes. After a disappointing loss to Whitman 19-16 to end last season, they strived to use past failures as a means for success.

“We had a rough start to the season. We got beat by 10 in each of our first two games and after 8 games we were 3-5. Since then we have really come together and played extremely well winning 8 of 9 and finished our league play 11-6,” coach Steve Sutherland said.

The midseason turnaround was attributed to two key players, senior captain pitcher/utility Noah Cerrud-Osman and sophomore pitcher/first baseman Dean Wandell. Cerrud-Osman batted .500 on the season with two home runs and 20 RBIs and for pitching he had a 3-1 record with a 1.75 ERA. Wandell, who will be leading the team for years to come, batted .375 with two home runs and 18 RBIs, with a 1-1 record and 3.41 ERA pitching.

The game on senior night against Poolesville was particularly notable as the team won the game 5-2, but more importantly the team no-hit Poolesville which is one of the greatest feats in baseball. Cerrud-Osman started the game, and after a rough start to the game giving up the only two runs in the first inning, he pitched five straight scoreless innings. Then in the seventh inning lockdown closer senior pitcher Ian Rees came in, shutting down Poolesville and completing the combined no-hitter.

Going into the playoffs, the team had high hopes. They started with an opening round matchup against Einstein, where they narrowly beat them 5-3, setting up a matchup against rival Whitman for the 3rd consecutive year in playoffs. The Wildcats fought hard in the game but ended up losing 5-1, ending their up and down season in the divisional semifinals.

“I feel like this season we were a really well bonded team and we played well together. We had our ups and downs but we finished the season 11-6 with momentum going into the playoffs. For upcoming years I feel that we have a lot potential but we need to work really hard in order to keep that momentum going,” sophomore Patrick Kemp said.

One thing that no high school student likes is work. At times, the workload can feel very overwhelming and stressful. Most students would much rather never have any homework. This is obviously an unreasonable request. However, there are several scheduling changes administration can make to help students achieve the best academic success possible.

Firstly, expanding Wildcat Wellness would be great. Almost all students love it. It gives students a time to catch up or get ahead on schoolwork – once a week. And that’s the only problem with it. If Wildcat Wellness lands on a day in the week where you barely have any work, then it doesn’t do much good for you. If we were to have Wildcat Wellness several times a week, it would be even more beneficial than it already is.

The way Wildcat Wellness is currently scheduled proves that it would not be hard at all to make this happen. Wildcat Wellness itself is 41 minutes. As a result, each of our class periods are shortened from 46 minutes to 42. This is hardly a significant change. Teachers and students could easily adjust to class periods that are 4 minutes shorter; it probably would not have a big effect on instructors teaching their content. And it’s not as if this is something radical. Lots of schools across the nation have daily study halls. Given WJ’s intense academic culture, why not us as well?

Another change that WJ should consider is moving from a seven period schedule to a block schedule. This would be a pretty big change, but a very helpful one for students. This semester I have physics and Calculus back to back to end the day. These are classes that require maximum attention, but it’s very hard to function at your best after already going to five other classes. It truly is a miracle that we manage to make it through seven classes every single day, five times a week. With a block schedule, students would only have three to four classes a day.

Now, the classes would be much longer, but students would still likely feel a little more fresh knowing they don’t have as many classes to go to. Most importantly, students would be able to manage their homework load a lot better. Having a block schedule usually means you don’t have the same class two days in a row. If you get homework for one class on Monday, it wouldn’t be due until Wednesday. Students would be able to chip away at their work in a productive way, rather than doing everything the night before.

In addition to making high school more manageable for students, a block schedule would also help students better prepare for the future. After all, most colleges tend to use block schedules. Why not give high school students a small idea of what their college experience might look like?

There have been a lot of great steps taken by administration to make life easier on students. Hopefully, they can expand even further on what’s been done so far to ensure the best possible learning environment for students.

As my senior year dwindles, I am starting to prepare for the next phase of my life. College always seemed so far off in my life thus far, but this past year, it has finally moved to within my reach. As graduation inches closer, I am starting to look back on what defines my last four years at Walter Johnson. Each year I have continued to find my place at school, in the community and with friends.

Like many other freshman, my journey at WJ began at the New Student Picnic. I still remember that event so vividly, as I was eager to get involved in activities and reconnect with my friends in high school. As I walked around, I decided to sign up for many clubs, including Debate, which would impact my entire time at WJ – even though I didn’t know it then. I’ve done debate for all four years and this year I got to become a captain, which helped me grow so much as a person and become more of a leader. I’ve loved learning about new, interesting topics and improving my public speaking.

While I’ve been involved in multiple activities, my experience on The Pitch has had a huge impact on my life and it was the largest thing that defined my high school experience. I first decided to take the journalism class (prerequisite to The Pitch) my sophomore year because I had always loved writing, but at the time I had no idea I would fall in love with article writing and working on a newspaper. I’ve met so many people I would have never met otherwise and I’ve gained so experience in leadership and stepping outside my comfort zone, especially with interviewing staff and students.

Despite these passions, throughout high school, I was worried I was not participating in the right activities or getting involved enough. I considered joining a sports team or theater, and I would always say that I never thought having numerous interests would cause a problem. I was so worried about missing out on things, that I often forgot to enjoy all of the incredible things I was involved in. By my senior year I have learned to live in the moment, and while it has been hard to deal with the stress of college applications and decisions, senior year has given me a great mindset. I realized that this year is my last chance to take risks and take advantage of every moment. I went out for lunch more, went to more sporting events and made sure to become more involved in the WJ community.

It’s hard to grasp that soon I won’t see my friends and classmates everyday and I’ll be living a completely new life, but change keeps things exciting and will create a new drive and motivation for me. I know now that wherever I end up, I’ll always remember my time at WJ.

Junior captain Calvin Annulis has been one of the most valuable players throughout the 2019 season for Wildcats varsity lacrosse. The Wildcats entered the playoffs with a 5-6 record, but lost in the second round to Churchill. Annulis has been on varsity all three years at WJ, and has grown into one of the team’s true leaders.

Q: What has been your favorite moment of this year’s season?

A: “My favorite part of this year’s season was our win against Einstein in triple overtime. It really helped the team get back in reality check for the rest of the season.”

Q: What role on the team do you view yourself as?

A: “I try to see myself as the motivator of the team. I want to make sure my guys feel confident before a game and know that if we are putting our best effort out there every single day, that’s all that matters in the end.”

Q: What has been the key to your success this season?

A: “I would say that we, as a group of lacrosse players, work really well together and have a chemistry that not a lot of other teams have. We have this mentality of working as a team and not as individuals.”

Q: How have you improved from last years season?

A: “I would say that I’ve improved a lot from last season. Although my skill level has improved from last year, I really think my confidence in my defense has helped a lot as well. We as a group have improved a lot from last season, so I have to give some credit to those guys.”

Q: Where would you like to see your lacrosse future go?

A: “Many of my teammates want me to play Division 1, but I just feel like it would be too much pressure and would take away from the fun of college. However, I would consider possibly D-III or a competitive club lacrosse team at a D-I college. After that, I plan to play lacrosse for fun and join the WJ lacrosse alumni team.”

Montgomery County recently announced they were going to look into redrawing school boundaries. They hired consultants to analyze the boundaries based off four factors demographics, geographic proximity, stability over time and school capacity. They held open town halls at schools and made an effort to be open.

As expected, people got mad. Especially parents who argued that it would lower property value. The tone of all the town halls suggested students seemed to be for it, but parents were against it. The real question is who’s right?

De facto segregation is rooted deep in our society. The effects from decades and decades of it still exist. Today WJ students enjoy the privilege this de facto segregation has given us.

Walter Johnson is a nice school. We often are ranked highly for our academic performance. Actually, we are ranked 19th in the state of Maryland. We are in a nice area. When things are broken, they get fixed. We are also an up-county school and are 54% white. Another fun tidbit is we only have 7% of students who need free/discounted lunch. This is all very interesting. Let’s take a look at another up-county school. Walt Whitman High School is ranked at number three in MD. Whitman is also 68% white and only 2% of students need free or discounted lunches.

Okay, let’s change it up and look at a down-county school. Paint Branch High School, for example. Paint Branch is 56% African american, has 36% of students who need free or discounted lunches and is ranked 62nd in MD (all figures above are from schooldigger.com).

Montgomery County has a reputation as both being fairly diverse and being a very good area academically. Based on the facts above, those things seem to vary from school to school. It looks like it’s one or the other. Something needs to change, soon.

Wealthier families can afford to live near good schools, pay for tutoring and support their children. Wealthier students don’t need to work so they can do more competitive classes and electives. This allows for these schools to get better and therefore the price to live there goes up. It’s an unbreakable cycle.

Something like changing school boundaries to make schools more diverse could help this. It wouldn’t solve all the problems, but it would be giving students a chance they wouldn’t have had to attend a better educational facility. It would be a step in the right direction to improve student life and society as a whole.

Parents in the richer schools tend to be against redistricting because the value of their houses would go down. These are valid concerns as they did pay to live there. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem ethical to keep promoting de facto segregation for the sake of money. Change always comes at a cost, and students are way more supportive than their parents. They believe that their education experience would be improved by diversity. Diverse schools also better represent real life. Life is not all black and white.

On Saturday, May 4, the WJ Chemathon level 2 team took 1st place at the annual University of Maryland Chemathon competition. WJ in the past has not done this well at Chemathon before. The level 1 team did not place in the top 10, but they also were successful.

Symphony orchestra wipes the competition:

In their twelfth straight year qualifying for the Maryland State Orchestra Assessment Festival, WJ symphonic orchestra received very high marks. The group’s performance on May 1 garnered four 1’s, the highest rating available, including an impressive 1 in sight reading.

“I thought we performed really well at states, the stage was really dope and it had great acoustics. We got straight 1’s also, which is the highest score you can get, so overall it was a really good event,” junior violinist Michael Clempson said.

MCPS closing graduation disparities:

Amidst talks of increasing diversity throughout MCPS schools, the graduation rate for some minorities has increased, while others are still struggling. The graduation rate for African American students increased by 1.9% over the past two years, while the hispanic/latino rate fell by 2.7% during the same period. Overall, MCPS had a decreasing graduation rate of 1.5% since 2017, and WJ experienced a decrease of 0.6%.

WJ 38th in US News and World Report Maryland rankings:

US News and World Report ranks public high schools across the nation based on college readiness, math/reading proficiency and performance. Walter Johnson was ranked 38th academically in the state of Maryland and 14th in Montgomery County as of 2019. Nearby schools received higher ranks, like Walt Whitman at #1 and Thomas S. Wootton at #2, but some errors were made in the collection of data, such as WJ’s data on reading proficiency not being included. This may have resulted in WJ’s lower ranking than normal.